Fiddlers, Bards and Lovers All: Music of the Celtic Isles

CANTATICA, under the direction of Michael Tamte-Horan, will present “Fiddlers, Bards and Lovers All: Music of the Celtic Isles” on Sunday, October 11, 2009, 4:00 PM . The concert, the first of the professional vocal and instrumental chamber ensemble’s 2009-2010 concert season, will include contemporary arrangements of traditional music of the Celtic bards of Ireland, Scotland and Wales; classical and jazz settings of songs and sonnets of The Bard, William Shakespeare; rarely heard chamber works written for the productions of the Royal Shakespeare Company; and U.S. premiere performances of traditional Welsh songs for soprano and instruments arranged by Canadian cittern player and Skye Consort member, Sean Dagher. On the program will be works for chamber choir, vocal soloists, violin/fiddle, cello, flute, clarinet, piano, harp, guitar and percussion by composers Michael McGlynn (Ireland), James MacMillan (Scotland), Bonnie Rideout (Scotland), Gerald Custer (America), Jackson Berkey (America), Sir George Shearing (England), Tom Cunningham (England), Roger Quilter (England), Guy Woolfenden (England), Howard Blake (England) and James Walker (England).

SPECIAL GUEST: Lehigh Valley Charter High School of the Performing Arts Touring Choir, David Macbeth, conductor.